Publications
BCEC Quarterly Economic Commentary – June 2019
This Western Australia Quarterly Economic Commentary analyses the most recent data on economic and social indicators for WA, as at Q2 2019. This quarter we see that falling private sector investment continues to drag the WA economy into negative growth territory,... Read article
Labour market implications of promoting women’s participation in STEM in Australia
It is commonly argued that maintaining and enhancing Australia’s standard of living will require increasing the proportion of the population attaining university level qualifications in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Accordingly, governments and universities have been proactive in encouraging... Read article
BCEC Newsletter Autumn 2019 Edition
Welcome to the Autumn 2019 edition of the BCEC tri-annual newsletter. The issue of gender pay equity is an ongoing focus for the Centre, and one of the highlights of our research and engagement program for the first half of... Read article
Getting our house in order?
This report by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre focuses on housing affordability, one of the most important economic and social issues facing Western Australia, and indeed the country. This twelfth report in BCEC’s Focus on WA series builds on the Centre’s earlier... Read article
Dimensions of attitudes to autonomous vehicles
For the benefits of autonomous vehicles (AVs) to be optimized, the fleet conversion process needs to be efficient and timely. This study explored public attitudes to AVs to inform strategies to increase receptivity to the wide-scale use of AVs. A... Read article
BCEC Quarterly Economic Commentary – March 2019
– Fragility lingers for the WA economy – – Show me the money: Wage growth a key culprit for sluggish household consumption growth – – Dwelling approvals improve – but all else is not equal in the housing sector – This Western... Read article
Culture, migration and educational performance: a focus on gender outcomes using Australian PISA tests
This paper explores how cultural and migrant backgrounds affect boys’ and girls’ high-school academic performance. Scores from the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment are analysed for Australian children from migrant and non-migrant families, conditional upon a measure of gender... Read article
Clusters of potential autonomous vehicles users according to propensity to use individual versus shared vehicles
As the widespread use of autonomous vehicles (AVs) becomes increasingly likely, an important consideration is the extent to which individuals prefer either private ownership or shared use modes. Both modes are currently evolving, each with distinct but overlapping challenges. Understanding... Read article
BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update – February 2019
Welcome to the February 2019 edition of the BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update. Produced monthly, this economic commentary explores the latest labour force data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), providing expert insights and analysis around key labour market indicators. We’ve also... Read article
The decades-long dispute over scale effects in the theory of economic growth
The so-called ‘new growth theory’ is characterized by the now Nobel Prize winning insight that ideas are a non-rival input to and output from endogenous investment in innovation. Non-rivalry implies increasing returns to scale, but this also unintentionally creates an... Read article
Gender Equity Insights 2019: Breaking through the Glass Ceiling
Glass ceilings have featured heavily in Australia’s workplaces for centuries but in recent years significant changes have been made. Women now make up almost 50% of Australia’s workforce and hold around 40% of all full-time jobs. Although women still remain under-represented... Read article
The social and economic sustainability of WA’s rural volunteer workforce
Volunteering is critical to the survival and success of rural communities in Western Australia (WA). The past two decades have seen an increase in the community services delivered by volunteers and demand on the volunteer workforce has intensified. Yet, according to data collected... Read article